Which Tastes Better, Canned or Bottled Beer?

Only time will tell which packaging of beer wins over consumers' taste buds.

Despite the huge growth of canning craft beer in the industry, beer lovers still want to debate what tastes better: canned beer or bottled beer. The brewers behind Oskar Blues (who led the way in canning beer) will tell you that canned beer tastes better, without a doubt, but is that what the consumers think?

That's what one Californian craft brewery is asking its loyal fans, with a new can and bottle combo pack. Craftbeer.com shares that Schubros Brewery, in San Ramon, Calif., packaged its Nico American Wheat beer for consumers to buy. Then, drinkers are asked to complete a survey to vote on which packaging they like best.

So what's the tally so far? Seventeen percent of drinkers have voted that they prefer the beer can to the beer bottle, compared to just 8 percent who preferred the beer bottle. Thirteen percent say it's dependent on time and place. But the overwhelming majority, 56 percent of voters, say they couldn't taste the difference. So much for that.

But according to Craftbeer.com, the president of Schubros Brewery commissioned a study through St. Mary’s University’s MBA program to investigate whether canned or bottled beer was better. The study's results were just as convoluted as the consumers' preferences. "[The study] showed a strong can advantage for operations purposes, and a modest environmental advantage for cans (recycling rates slightly outweighing the aluminum mining effects), but a surprisingly strong degree of consumer skepticism and disinterest which far surpassed our initial cautious assumptions," Ian Schuster wrote of the study. So what really is better? Only time will tell which packaging of beer wins over consumers' taste buds.